Mana.

Finally I had started to make progress. I was now two, and a lot had happened in my young, second life. For a start, I knew a lot more about the environment I was inhabiting. 

My mothers and I lived in the Silfen War and Magic Academy, which was located, as the name might suggest, in the Kingdom of Silfen, the furthest north of the human and demi-human lands on this continent. The reason for it being located in such a place was because, to the north, lay a mostly barren area everyone called the Badlands. Further on still was demon territory. Obviously this was of interest to me, considering my ultimate reason for being here was to hunt that son of a bitch down again.

The academy was a pretty big place, although in form, was fairly simple. Imagine, if you will, a stone wall, a huge stone wall, with living areas, classrooms, storage areas and all the other kinds of places people needed to live, inside it. Now imagine this wall built in a huge rectangle, with the courtyard I had seen from my first view outside the window in the centre. Such was the academy.

Our little apartment complex was on the north side, with the windows all facing south, into the central area. The outer wall was fortified, and barely had any views out, so we were lucky to have these. I later learned that, as both my parents were instructors, we had a slightly larger place than most.

Rath, not really surprisingly, was a combat instructor. She had carried me outside and sat me down whilst taking a lesson on a few occasions now, and I'd never seen anything like her. Her main weapon was a bastard big sword, which she wielded two handedly most of the time, but I'd also seen her use a staff, as spear, a halberd and a bow. Her title was Weapon Master, and I believed it was well deserved. According to what I overheard, she was the best overall fighter in the place, although someone else took the title for swordsman.

Lissa, on the other hand, was a Sister of the Blessed Mother. Basically, a cleric. And she had magic! My mother was a gentle soul though, and specialised in healing, with some defensive magics thrown in too. I fell sick with a fever when I was about six months old. Lissa came in, a loving smile on her face, placed her palm gently on my forehead, and muttered a prayer under her breath. Within a minute my fever had broken, and I was as good as new. I was amazed, and swore to myself then, that I would always protect her.

My language had progressed in leaps and bounds too. As soon as my baby body had developed enough, I worked on my communication skills, much to the wonder of everyone who met me, and the joy of my mothers, who took great pride in my apparent genius. I felt a bit of a fraud about that. 

On the other hand, I was beginning to be known as a slightly odd kid. When I had been very young, my baby body had cried from time to time, although not as much as a normal baby. However, now I had more control, I just didn't. And even though I made an effort, when I remembered at least, I was obviously not a normal, bubbly child. Bear in mind, I was in my fifties when I died, and it that was still mostly my mindset. 

Hence some people who were closer to my parents looked askance at me.

It wasn't going to get better in that regards either, because as soon as I was able, I went hunting down books to read. 

It was great relief to find the language, and the writing, was really quite simple. Their written word looked rather like runic, with each rune, sometimes two together, making a sound. In many ways it was even easier than English, which had been my main language back in my first life, as the words were spelled how they sounded. Also the grammar was simple, with no changes to past and present tense needed, just the addition of another word to signify that, if required.

I started to learn by getting my mothers to read to me every chance I could, whilst I sat on their laps and followed along. Those books were very simple, designed for a child, but this gave me a basis for the alphabet, and once I had that, I could carry on myself. Initially though, after getting the basics, I was a little frustrated. My parents were obviously not big readers, as they hardly ever had any other books around.

My luck changed though, when Myra entered my life, in several ways.

I had started crawling about early, and took every chance to scoot off somewhere, which meant my parents had to, in their opinion at least, keep an eye on me all the time, which was wearing for them. So they hired a babysitter, a young girl of about thirteen, who lived a few doors down.

Myra was cute. I drooled when I first saw her, mentally at least. She was human, petite, but with quite a nice pair of boobs on her, even at her age. When I sat on her lap, I took great pleasure in resting my head on those lovely cushions. I know, a pervert toddler. She was pretty too, with large brown eyes, a button nose and dark hair, cut short. 

She was a student at the academy, but only because her father worked at the place, as an assistant or some such, so her classes were not as numerous as other students, and her family was not quite so well off. Hence the extra income earned from looking after me was welcomed by them. 

Myra didn't just want to hang around our apartment, which was fine by me. I had been outside of our home a relatively few times, and out of the building, into the small town that was down the hill from the academy, only twice, so any change of scenery was welcome.

In any case, I asked her if we could visit the library, and she was more than amenable, as she had to get some books for her studies anyway.

At first she was nervous, even having got to know me a little by then, that I would make a noise, but I was no ordinary toddler of course, and all I cared about were the books. With a little nudging, I managed to get her to borrow a basic book on magic, and from then on, I was hooked.

That first day I simply read, I had to really, we were in the library. Myra was writing some sort of paper, with research from several tomes, so I was left to sit at the end of her table, on several thick books piled on a seat, with strict instructions to keep quiet.

As far as my reading had come, I still had some problems at first. I mean, there were more than a few words that I could read, but I hadn't yet learned the meaning of! Some of them I could guess, using the context, but others I wasn't sure of. In any case, I got the gist of magic fairly quickly.

In a nutshell, magic came from mana, which was exuded, usually fairly slowly and over time, by all living things. It even said the earth gave it off, but I suspected that really it was probably coming from the small, even microscopic, creatures that lived in it, and the same for water, and even the air. 

In any case, to use magic, one had to channel the mana, and to do that you had to visualise the task in a certain way to create a spell. Spells were of five levels. Base, low, medium, high and ultra. Base spells were really low level things, using a tiny amount of mana, such as creating a spark, and nearly anyone could do this. However, more powerful spells needed more energy, more mana, and this is where people differed. Those with higher power, and hence higher ability, could channel more mana at once. Controlling this mana grew exponentially harder, with only a very rare mage being powerful enough to try ultra level spells, so the use of incantations was needed at some point. Usually, more powerful wizards could cast some medium levels spells without the need to incant, but beyond that, the spell usually needed to be spoken, and more powerful spells still needed hand movements too. These allowed the caster to channel the mana and shape it to their will. However, of course, these incantations meant the spell took longer to cast, and in a time critical situation, such as a battle, this could be fatal. 

The book I had explained the basics of how to channel mana, and I was excited to try this. I had to hold my patience though, as I needed to wait until I was somewhere private. Even just sitting in the library had garnered a lot of puzzled looks from students and teachers passing by. It's not every day you see a two year old reading after all.

There was something I could try here though, something that needed no incantation or anything except concentration, and that was to actually see mana.

According to the book, this was a base ability, that most people could do to some degree, so I was confident I should be able to manage it. Essentially, you had to focus in a certain way, almost like those 'magic eye' images back in my first world. You also had to try and visualise the mana in a specific fashion, which the book explained. 

The mana should, so I read, look like a golden mist, with stronger sources even having sparkling motes within. The more powerful the mage, the more sensitive the mana detection they should have. So, for example, a low level user would be able to detect mana from a powerful magic artefact if they tried, but a powerful user should easily be able to see mana coming off a plant. 

I was no believer in god, or gods, back in my old world, but having literally passed over, and met beings of god level power, as well as having seen my mother channel energy from the Blessed Mother, I muttered a short prayer before taking a deep breath and trying to visualise the very source of magic.

For want of anything better, I focussed on Myra, who was always pleasant to look at anyway, and, as a living being, should be giving off a certain level of the stuff. Anyone with a decent level of power, so the book had said, should be able to detect it emanating from a person.

And so, I tried. I stared at her, stared through her, stared beyond her, let my eyes unfocus… but nothing. Then I remembered I had to visualise too! Stupid.

I did my eye thing again, and visualised.

"Aaah!" I wailed, and fell off my chair.

"Theo!" Myra cried, standing up and running around the table, to find me shielding my eyes and moaning. "What is it?" she asked, picking me up, simultaneously nodding and apologising to the few other people nearby for the interruption. "Didn't I tell you to be quiet? What are you doing?"

"So bright," I moaned, carefully opening my eyes a fraction. "Oh!"

The mana coming of Myra was like looking at the sun. "Your mana, so bright…"

"What? My mana? It's just a normal… oh." 

She was quiet then, so much so that I tried to peep at her again, but I had to shield my eyes once more.

"You…" I could hear her muttering, but then she pulled herself together. "You need to focus on the… how do I say this? Try seeing less intensely. You can adjust the level of your vision if you try. Oh my, I've never heard of this before. Theo, do you understand me?"

"Y… yes," I said, trying to take in what she had said. 

Okay, visualise less. Like turning down the brightness I suppose. So I did that, although it took me a minute to get my head around the concept. 

Still, when I opened my eyes a crack again, Myra was no longer glowing like the sun. Instead it looked like a golden mist was coming off her, almost like she was steaming. Glints of shining light could be seen within this mana smoke too, as the book had foretold.

"Oh, that's better," I said. "Maybe I'm just a bit sensitive."

"You can see my mana?" she asked, eyes wide.

"Yes, so brightly. Are you a powerful mage Miss Myra?"

She shook her head. "No, no more than average, at best. I can detect mana from a person if I try, or more easily if they're very powerful, but it's strange…" She squinted at me. "I can't see any mana coming from you."

"What? Nothing at all?"

"No, but if you can see my mana as you said, then surely you have an amazing level of ability. I don't understand." She stood up, with me in her arms, cradled against that wonderful bosom of hers. "I'm going to speak to your mother about this, maybe she can explain."

"As you say Miss Myra," I said, resting against her chest and luxuriating in it. "Oh, please take my book back."

"Very well. Sit here a minute while I clean up." She placed me back on the chair, and began tidying her books away, whilst I took a look around at the world through my new eyes.

"The book had not been lying. Of the few other people in the room, I could see three with less mana, one with about the same, and an older man in robes, probably a teacher, who was giving off far more. So, he was probably a powerful mage. I looked down at myself, but, as Myra had said, I couldn't detect anything at all from me. 

"How odd," I said to myself. Perhaps it had something to do with me being from another world. Or at least, my mind being from one. 

Myra took me back to my apartment, where we found my mother Lissa in the kitchen, cooking, a pastime she enjoyed. I saw the mana streaming off her with my new vision, almost as brightly as I'd first seen it coming off Myra, and had to reduce my 'brightness' a little more, so I didn't have to squint to see her.

"Hello sweetie!" my mother said, when she saw me toddle in. "Is that another book?"

"It's a book of basic magic," Myra informed her. 

"What? What are you doing, giving him that at his age?" Lissa asked her, a shocked look on her expression.

"I don't think you realise your son's ability," Myra said. She picked me up, stood me on a chair next to a table that was in the kitchen, took the book from me and opened it at a random page. "Theo, read," she ordered.

I looked at her for a moment, then at my mother, who had a bemused expression on her face, and then shrugged. She'd find out sooner or later anyway. 

So I began to read the text out loud. It was a page I'd already read, so it was easier the second time. After about a paragraph, my mother let out a low scream.

"How is he doing that?" she asked Myra. "Theo, how can you read? You're not even three yet!"

I smiled at her. "You taught me mother," I simply said. Perhaps it was better to keep things as basic as possible.

"I… I…" Lissa stammered.

"That's not the strangest thing," Myra went on. "He can see my mana too, and not at a low level, more like… master level, possibly archmagi."

"What? How do you know?"

"He was reading the book, which explains it, and he looked at me and fell off his chair, he said I was too bright to look at. Me. You can see my mana, can't you Mistress?"

"Yes, I mean, I'm sorry, it's not so… Oh." My mother put her hand to her mouth as she suddenly realised the implications of what Myra was saying. "But… but he has no… I mean, I though, hoped it would manifest later, sometimes that happens. I mean, I was happy just to have a child… I…" She staggered over to the chair I was still standing on, lifted me up, and slumped down into it, sitting me on her lap.

"Oh, Blessed Mother," she said, "Please aid me now. Help me understand."

In my time with my parents, as relatively short as it had been, I had seen Lissa perform healing magic on me, so I know she had power, but what happened next would have knocked me down, had I not been sitting and held.

A bright light shone down from the ceiling, enveloping the three of us. I felt a warmth and a love, a serenity that I had never felt before, and, underlying that, a power that humbled and awed me.

"Dear daughter, your son has been sent by strange gods." The Voice was as smooth as silk, as powerful as a supernova. "His destiny will either change the world for the better, or destroy it. Guide him in My Name, until the time comes for him to set out on his own. Prepare him for hardship. Prepare him to lead, to guide, and to help those weaker, and in need. Theo, a burden greater than you were sent here for will lie upon your shoulders. Be true to your inner heart, and you will find what you seek, and more. These are my Words."

And then the light was gone.

I blinked. Well, that was something you didn't see every day.